Summary:
Our client, a biopharmaceutical company in Cork, is seeking a Sourcing and Procurement Specialist to support the end-to-end source-to-pay lifecycle for Logistics and Distribution. This role covers sourcing, contracting, purchase order management, supplier onboarding and spend analytics across third-party logistics and warehousing, freight forwarding, courier, cold chain packaging and temperature monitoring services. The successful candidate will support daily procurement activities while developing category management expertise.
Responsibilities:
- Execute sourcing events (RFI/RFQ/RFP), including preparing documentation, managing supplier communications, consolidating responses and developing bid comparisons and scoring analyses.
- Support lane-based freight and courier rate requests, comparing rates and cost-to-serve across air, ocean and road transport and different regions.
- Support supplier evaluation, selection and award recommendations, documenting outcomes in accordance with procurement policies.
- Manage lower-complexity sourcing requests, independently lead tactical sourcing events and elevate strategic or high-risk requests as appropriate.
- Act as a point of contact for Supply Chain, Distribution, Quality, Trade Compliance and Clinical Supply stakeholders, providing guidance on procurement processes and policies.
- Clarify stakeholder requirements, scope, timelines and budgets to support efficient sourcing and contracting.
- Help resolve supplier delivery, invoicing and service-performance issues, coordinating cross-functional actions and escalating where necessary.
- Draft and route standard agreements, including NDAs/CDAs, MSAs, SOWs, change orders and amendments, using approved templates in partnership with Legal and the Senior Category Manager.
- Support commercial negotiations on pricing and terms for assigned spend under the guidance of the Senior Category Manager.
- Review purchase requisitions for policy compliance, correct commodity coding and alignment with contract values; support purchase order creation, changes and closure.
- Maintain contract repository records, track renewal and expiry dates and initiate renewals ahead of deadlines.
- Coordinate supplier onboarding and setup, including due diligence, risk assessments and required documentation.
- Track logistics supplier KPIs and SLAs, including on-time delivery, temperature excursions, damage or loss and invoice accuracy, alongside rebates and value realisation; prepare materials for supplier business reviews.
- Monitor supplier risk indicators and flag concerns to the Senior Category Manager.
- Extract, cleanse and analyse spend data from Ariba, SAP and related systems to identify savings, consolidation and compliance opportunities.
- Build and maintain dashboards and reports using Power BI and Excel to track spend, savings, contract coverage and the procurement pipeline.
- Track and document hard and soft savings in line with procurement savings methodologies and Finance requirements.
- Support market research and benchmarking to inform category strategies.
- Maintain data integrity across procurement and quality systems, including Ariba, SAP, GEP Smart, Veeva, Power BI and SharePoint Lists.
- Support trade compliance reviews for international shipments, including Incoterms, duties and tariff validation, in partnership with Trade Compliance colleagues.
- Support policy compliance, audit requests and the execution of procurement business processes.
- Contribute to continuous improvement initiatives that simplify procurement processes, tools and the requester experience.
Qualifications & Experience:
- Bachelor's degree (NFQ Level 7/8 or equivalent) in supply chain, business, finance, engineering, life sciences or a related discipline.
- Progress towards a procurement or supply chain certification, such as CIPS, CPIM or CSCP, is advantageous.
- Minimum 2 years' experience in procurement, sourcing, supply chain or a related role.
- Working knowledge of source-to-pay processes, including sourcing, contracting, purchase orders and supplier management.
- Strong analytical skills, advanced Excel proficiency and experience working with large datasets.
- Experience in biotechnology, pharmaceutical, medical device or other regulated environments is preferred.
- Hands-on experience with SAP Ariba, SAP, GEP Smart, Veeva and/or Power BI is preferred.
- Exposure to pharmaceutical logistics, including cold chain, EU Good Distribution Practice (GDP), third-party logistics, freight forwarding and Incoterms, is preferred.
- A basic understanding of contract terms and commercial negotiation is preferred.